As we’ve reported in the last few weeks, Clear Channel in Wichita, Kansas, has been refusing to air ads for the local reproductive health clinic, South Wind Women’s Center. The ads, Clear Channel says, are “indecent.” Not indecent? Ads for “male enhancement,” and for local adult book shops (man, that’s a lot of euphemisms. Boner pills and porn, folks).

But, the awesome Women Action and the Media, helmed by friend of the site Jaclyn Friedman, launched a big campaign to get Clear Channel to reconsider their position. A petition, tweets, emails, and a fair bit of totally-merited public shaming, because there is nothing indecent about healthcare, and the people of Wichita shouldn’t be kept in the dark about available health services because Clear Channel is squeamish about abortion. And South Wind shouldn’t be punished with a bullshit double standard, which is clearly what’s going on here.

I’m pleased to report that yesterday, Wichita Clear Channel met with South Wind. According to WAM!:

…the meeting was cordial and productive, and that the representatives of Clear Channel were eager to learn more about South Wind Women’s Center and the critical health services it provides… and will let South Wind know the results of that reconsideration by the end of next week.

So, WAM! has decided not to deliver their petition to the radio station yet, “as a show of good faith, while Clear Channel is re-evaluating its position on South Wind’s ads.” But, WAM! is encouraging supporters of South Wind, and of access to reproductive healthcare everywhere, to keep signing and spreading the petition. So if you haven’t signed it yet, go do that! We’ll keep you posted on how the situation is progressing.

New York, NY

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia. She joined the Feministing team in 2009.
Her writing about politics and popular culture has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, New York magazine, Reuters, The LA Times and many other outlets in the US, Australia, UK, and France. She makes regular appearances on radio and television in the US and Australia. She has an AB in Sociology from Princeton University and a PhD in Arts and Media from the University of New South Wales. Her academic work focuses on Hollywood romantic comedies; her doctoral thesis was about how the genre depicts gender, sex, and power, and grew out of a series she wrote for Feministing, the Feministing Rom Com Review. Chloe is a Senior Facilitator at The OpEd Project and a Senior Advisor to The Harry Potter Alliance. You can read more of her writing at chloesangyal.com

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia.

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